Tuesday, April 26, 2011

Easter Recap

I hope everyone had a good Easter. Ours was nice, but very busy. To start this post off in an Eastery fashion, here's my little art project I worked on last Sunday while Jacob was napping--my "stained" (not dyed) wooden Easter eggs :)

We headed to Buffalo on Friday, as I had off and Craig took off, in anticipation of having to work Saturday anyway since the Knighthawks were playing in Buffalo that night. We got out of town just about when we figured we would, and even though it was only late morning, Jacob nodded off in the car. The bad news was that deviating from his normal nap is normally problematic, but the good news was that he'd be slightly recharged enough to head to the Broadway Market after lunch. The Broadway Market is a Buffalo Easter tradition. It's not located in the best part of town, but it's swarmed at Easter with people looking to buy a little of everything--meat, bread, pastries, candy, ethnic items, and who knows what else. It's definitely an experience, and neither Craig nor I had been there in years. We knew it would be busy, but we went anyway. We did a little shopping before finding out that Craig's parents and his brother's family were all there, so we treked around the market trying to find them. We all shopped together for a bit, though eventually Jacob and I headed off to find the bathroom, which ended up taking far longer and being far more exhausting than I'd have hoped. It wasn't made much better by the fact that Jacob was squirmy and in escape mode, and that he was screaming for popcorn (he'd shared some of his cousins'). Ugh. By the time that was over, we tried to shop a little on our own, but by then I was tired, the diaper bag was killing my shoulder, and I was ready to go home. We had to head back anyway, because we had prunes and noodles on tap.

I mentioned last week about Easter traditions, and prunes and noodles is a classic one. Jacob actually ate his noodles and crutons right up, and loved the desserts, too. We had a nice time visiting with the family before heading off to church. At that point Craig headed off to stay with his parents, since he had to work all day Saturday anyway. Jacob was ok at church, though he wouldn't be quiet! He kept talking, out loud, no matter how many times we told him to whisper. However, as I mentioned in Saturday's post, he was intrigued by the darkness and referred to Jesus dying as sad. Sweet. He did great draping his "sin strip" on the cross (a far cry from a couple years ago when he didn't want to let mine go!), and overall it was reasonably ok...but the talking, ugh! Afterward we all played for a bit (including my Aunt Sue, who was staying with my parents as well...Jacob was teaching her lacrosse!) while watching the Sabres game, and bedtime went pretty much without incident.

Saturday morning he woke up early, but for the most part we both woke up in a good mood. We snuggled in bed for a while and finally got up for breakfast and potty time. Not much progress there, by the way. We'll have bright moments quickly darkened by another poopy diaper. He insists he wants to do it, but no action. I was hoping the diaper rash he ended up with after a couple poopy diapers might convert him, and he has seemed more willing in the last couple days, but we'll see. The weather was looking nice after a long night of rain, so I decided to go out for a run. I was out for a half hour, and despite the wind making for a tough run, it was a lovely, pleasant day for a change. When I got home I was promptly informed that my mom and aunt were on their way to see my grandma, who was probably headed to the hospital. She's been having a lot of problems lately and things aren't looking great. Unfortunately, it ended up being an all-day thing, so it was just Jacob, my dad and me for the rest of the day. We grabbed some lunch, Jacob napped (during which I read and blogged on the porch...awesome), and then we went outside and played golf for a while. Here are some of my favorite pictures...

He looks like a pro, doesn't he? :)

Not sure what he was doing for this one...maybe talking about throwing something. Love it anyway...

I just love the pure joy on his face in this one. He was saying the tree looked like a moose and thought that was very funny.

Love this one. Sweet, happy, and full of blue skies :)

﻿﻿We had a late-ish dinner and another uneventful bedtime, shortly after which my mom and aunt got home. Bummer of a day for them :(

Craig got to my parents' house very late after a Knighthawks' win over the Bandits so he could join us for church the next morning. We had a couple minutes before church so Jacob could "find" his Easter basket. It wasn't hidden very hard. He got a chocolate soccer-themed bunny, an Air Bud movie we got cheap at a Blockbuster Video store closing sale, a lacrosse shirt (which he actually got a duplicate of--I'm going to try to exchange it for the next size up), a little puzzle, and a few eggs with some candy.

Have I mentioned what a big boy he's becoming?

This picture is blurry, but I liked it so much. He looks so grown up and it's showing off his big boy belt, which he needed for these pants. Tall and skinny makes dressing kids awfully tough!

We headed off to church and once again had a chatty kid on our hands. It got a little frustrating, but between a number of laps to sit on, some snacks and some toys, we made it. Jacob busted out of church exclaiming about seeing the basketball hoops down in the gym (his favorite thing about church), even though we told him the hoops were put away because we were eating breakfast there. We had a detour down to the church basement first, because they had just finished major renovations there and were doing a dedication. Jacob gravitated to the one far area of the basement, where one of these abstract, quickly painted pictures of Jesus was hung. It was the same type as the one on the altar on Good Friday, as well as one on the altar for Easter--they used to hang on the church walls and Jacob has always been interested in them. As Jacob walked up to it, he waved and said, "Hi, Jesus!" So cute.

After that we were off to breakfast. Jacob pretty much just ate pancakes and doughnuts, but the food was really good and kicked off a long day of eating. Afterward we headed off to the Easter egg hunt, at which Jacob won a giant blue bunny last year. I prayed he wouldn't win anything like that again (once is enough!) and he proceeded to wander around the candy-filled room and fill a small paper bag half full of candy. Here he is among the Tootsie Rolls, Nerds, Sweet Tarts, and more...

After that we were off to Craig's parents. We hung out all afternoon with his brother's and cousin's families--lots of kids for Jacob to play with. We actually kept the sports to a minimum for most of the time and Jacob stayed mostly out of trouble. Considering he had a short, early nap, that was good for him. We ate an obscene amount of food (so good) and ended up leaving during the second intermission of the Sabres game. We made a stop at Craig's aunt and uncle's house, though we had missed most of the rest of the family since we were there considerably later than scheduled. Still, we wanted to stop. We had a little more food there, enjoyed hanging out for a few hours, and headed out much later than scheduled. We didn't get home until nearly 10:30 (and yes, Jacob slept the whole time), but the long, busy day was worth it to have a good day with the family.

So, all in all, Easter was a success. We're still recovering a bit, but I have plenty to keep me busy at work this week and have a nice long weekend to look forward to again next weekend. More on that soon...but first, I'm sure you'll be waiting with baited breath to hear about Jacob's first trip to Chuck E. Cheese...